NEW HAVEN — Jamell Cotto, co-chairman of the Board of Education’s Finance Committee, repeatedly expressed displeasure with the school district’s maintenance contracts in past months, saying they needlessly exclude local businesses and minority contractors.

His co-chairman Frank Redente has said the quality of work in the schools is poor. And both agreed that the costs of those contracts are too high, with what they judge to be too many change orders coming through their committee for unexpected extra work at added costs.

On Monday, however, Cotto made a thumbs-up gesture to show his approval of what the district had accomplished after putting nearly 50 contracts back out to bid. Joe “Pepe” Barbarotta, executive director of facilities, presented 22 of those contracts, of which six were new contractors found through the city’s small contractor development program, which aids local small-, minority- and women-owned businesses in finding work to grow their business.

Of the 16 contracts that did not have renewable options, the board found savings on eight, most notably a projected 25 percent cost reduction for dumpster services and a projected 21 percent cost reduction on fire sprinkler service and maintenance. Barbarotta said the savings on both were because the scope of service was renegotiated to be less.

“I think there were some (contractors) that thought there was competition and they had to lower their cost, and some we changed the scope of the work,” Barbarotta said.

Six contracts increased their costs, which COO Will Clark chalked up to rising costs of materials.

The sole welding contractor, different from the district’s contractor for the current year, has rates for a projected increase of 31.26 percent, or about $7,550. Cotto, the only official committee member present, also ignored a district recommendation that an on-call fencing repair service, which increased rates 275 percent, be rebid, passing the item along to the full board.

“I trust Mr. Barbarotta. If we put it back out to bid, we could be in a worse place,” Cotto said.

Although Cotto said he was pleased with the diversification of the contractors and some of the savings on some contracts, the district’s largest contract — its transportation contract with First Student — remains under negotiation.

In a monthly budget presentation, Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks said her staff is still working to eat away at a projected $20 million deficit for next year.

“We don’t intend to close any schools, but we may be able to realign or repurpose a program,” she said, refusing to give specifics in public on what program she meant.

She said preserving the “instructional core,” or students interacting with and learning from teachers and materials, is imperative to the school district’s mission. In the past, grant-funded positions have been switched to different funding streams, creating what she said is a staffing situation that is unsustainable.

“Right now we don’t have the resources to do that,” she said, although she also would not name specific funding streams that would be reevaluated in a public meeting or to the press. “Some of these areas, we are not utilizing those funds as efficiently as we could be in supporting the instructional core.”

She said the district would have to be “aggressive” about savings, including having staff evaluate whether students being placed out of district for special education programs are attending class and whether financial reductions can be made on tuition for out-of-district placements. Typhanie Jackson, director of student services, also said nationwide shortages for positions such as speech and language pathologists have inflated contractor costs.

“We have to run the organization,” she said, estimating that she is presently doing the jobs of six or seven positions. “I have to get on the balcony to ensure we are moving the organization forward and we have the right systems, structures and practices in place.”

One of her top priorities for the organizational structure, she said, would be to have everyone be aware of what their work responsibilities are, as too often a project will emerge and nobody will take credit for handling it. Another is having the structure reflect the needs of the state’s 12-pillar district evaluation system.

Board of Education President Darnell Goldson said he would not have an opinion on the organizational chart until he could see an analysis of the cost of the current central office structure against Birks’ proposed structure.